Kinda Soulmates
by AnonymouslyAddicted
Summary: "Loving can hurt sometimes, but it's the only thing that I know. When it gets hard, you know it can get hard sometimes, it is the only thing that makes us feel alive." Ed Sheeran. Fluff.


**A/N** : I've been meaning to post this sooner, and I'd like to think that if I had, it would've turned out much better, because I had a horrible week in between, but oh well, it is what it is. I took a break from the angst for some fluff, so here you go. Comments can really brighten my shitty day. Thanks!

* * *

 **Kinda Soulmates**

Sinking to the floor outside of her parents' bedroom, Stevie sighed heavily as a tear rolled down her cheek. She was supposed to be in bed, but her thoughts kept haunting her and she couldn't close her eyes. Looking for some sort of comfort, she found herself drawn to the place that was always a sanctuary for her, for as long as she could remember herself.

Henry pressed his lips against Elizabeth's for what seemed to be the thousand time that night. "I missed you, you know?"

She nodded, threading her hand through his hair. "I missed you too."

He kissed her time and again, their tongues moving together, hands touching and breaths quickening.

"I thought you only _kinda_ love me," he teased, stroking her forehead.

"Hmm, kinda a lot. You ever doubted that?"

"Well, who knows, maybe you found someone new at the Marine Detachment."

Elizabeth pulled him down for a passionate kiss, her lips sucking his and her hands pulling his body down to hers. "I have a Marine. I'm not looking to replace, especially when _my_ Marine looks much better."

Henry laughed, "you should've started with that."

Outside, Stevie was listening. She heard them kissing, smiling at their banter. It was quiet then and she knew they'd fallen asleep, her mother tucked in her father's embrace, lulled to sleep by the rise and fall of his breath. She'd seen them sleep like that so many times before, and she wondered if they knew how to sleep apart.

* * *

It was a rare, quiet Sunday morning. The world wasn't falling apart and it allowed Elizabeth to stay in.

"Do we need another coat?" Henry asked, standing next to Elizabeth and staring at the painted wall.

"I don't think so. But we should probably let it dry."

Wrapping his arm around her shoulder, he pulled her closer. "So we get to be lazy today? Just you and me?" He asked, grinning.

"Let's not jinx it, Professor."

Henry chuckled and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "I'm going to run to the store and get some things for a fancy lunch, I think we deserve the treat. Sound good?"

Elizabeth nodded in content, a wide grin spread across her face. He pecked her lips a few times before finally making his way towards the door and disappearing into the street. Sighing, Elizabeth poured herself another cup of coffee and sank into the couch with every intention of staying there for as long as possible.

She was aimlessly flipping through a fashion magazine, examining the different combinations of clothing but never bothering to read the tips and explanations.

"Mom?" Stevie called.

"Yeah," she replied, but her eyes remained focused on the magazine.

"Can I ask you something?"

Tossing the paper aside, along with her glasses, she smiled at her daughter. "Absolutely."

Stevie sat on the couch next to her. "How did you know dad was the one? When you were dating and he asked you to marry him, how did you know you really _did_ want to spend forever with him?"

Elizabeth blinked. She wasn't expecting that. While she loved Henry deeply, she never gave much thought to that question. "Well, I didn't. I mean, I wanted every day to be like it was since we got together, but I didn't _know_ that it would be. I don't think it always is." She paused, thinking back of a time everything was so simple.

"Life changes and things happen, that changes people, and I just hoped that whatever it was that we had back then would keep us together. I'm grateful that it did." She smiled before continuing. "And I don't know if I knew he was the one. That he would be the one after so many years. But I knew how he made me feel and it was enough to know I didn't want anything else."

Stevie nodded, but remained silent.

"Are you having second thoughts about Jareth?" Elizabeth asked, looking for a reasonable explanation for this conversation.

"Yes," Stevie admitted. "We had a fight the other day. We were painting his place and he… And I came home to find you doing the same, only you weren't fighting, and you've been together for so long that it got me thinking – if the novelty of us has already worn off, and this is what we are, is this the right thing? Is he really the one?"

Placing her cup of coffee on the table, Elizabeth sighed and moved closer to her daughter, pulling her in for a hug. "I'm sorry you two had a fight, but baby, if you give up the minute it gets hard, no one is ever going to be 'the one'".

"I know. But this feels… Mom, I grew up having the two of you always acting so in love with each other. It was the most comforting thing in the world. I would come home to the two of you cuddling in front of the TV, or cooking together. Just doing normal stuff couples do. Some of my friends, their parents got divorced, and I never had to worry about it. I… I want that. For my kids, I want them to feel the way I did. The way I do."

Elizabeth smiled. Losing her parents so early on in life, she never really knew what a healthy relationship looked like in the long run. Her parents seemed to love each other, and maybe their relationship would've lead a good example, but most of Elizabeth's memories of them were clouded by their death and she couldn't remember the feeling of safety and comfort that her kids felt. And yet, somehow, she knew, when she met Henry, that this was what she wanted for her kids.

"Sweetie, the reason your dad and I work so well is because we are both committed to this relationship. Sure, it's not the only thing, and we truly love each other, but we both made a promise to always try and work things out, even when it gets hard and it seems like there is no way out. We find a way out. And believe me when I tell you, we had our own fair share of fights. Just because you saw all that is good, it doesn't mean there wasn't any bad."

Stevie raised a bow, suddenly well aware that she never actually gave much thought into the things she didn't see and that she was, essentially, blissfully unaware. "Did you ever think about…?"

"Breaking up? Getting a divorce?" Elizabeth said the words out loud as Stevie was too afraid to.

"Yeah."

"We had two major ones. Plenty of fights, but only two that really threatened us."

Stevie pulled her sweater tighter around her, as if shielding herself from what she knew would ruin the perfect image she had in her head. She nodded, a slight hesitation on her face. She didn't know if she wanted to hear that. But maybe she should.

"First one was when I quit the CIA. He made me choose – him, and of course all of you, or the job. I don't ever regret that, but we hit a really rough patch because we never denied anyone of anything. I get why he gave me the ultimatum, and looking back it was probably the best thing he could've done for me…" she paused, reflecting on how her life might have looked like if she had gone to Bagdad. She blinked as tears welled in her eyes. She could've easily end up like Juliet. "But you have to understand – we both knew what we were getting into when we got married. I knew he was a marine, and he knew I was an analyst and neither one of us would ever have an actual desk job. To be honest, it surprised me he went into teaching and stuck with it for so long," Elizabeth chuckled.

"The second one…" Elizabeth started, taking a deep breath. That one still hurt her.

Stevie examined her for a moment; she never noticed that, never saw something paining her mom as much as the death of her parents. Elizabeth never spoke about Henry with the same sadness in her eyes as when she spoke of them. She reached for Elizabeth's hand, squeezing it tight, urging her to continue.

"Our jobs… Something happened, and it wasn't really up to any of us to prevent it, but we somehow ended up on opposite sides of something that neither of us thought we would do. I think… the way he looked at me when he realized what I had done, well, what I agreed to let happen… I wasn't sure we are ever getting out of that." A single tear rolled down her cheek and she reached to wipe it, turning from Stevie's piercing look.

Still holding onto her mother's hand, Stevie moved her finger over the rings that had been there for as long as she could remember, the constant reminder that they were, in fact, still together. "But you did…"

"Yes," Elizabeth replied, glancing at the rings and a small sigh escaped her mouth. "We worked really hard to, and it was a rough one, but we did."

Taking a deep breath, she met her daughter's eyes again. "Baby, my point is, you are the only two people who know if this is going to work. And the only way to know it is by talking. You don't… Your relationship is your own, and you are very different from your father and I. There isn't one right way to do this, and you have to figure out the right way for _you_."

Stevie nodded. Her mom was right, but that was exactly the problem. Unless she talked to him, unless he talked to _her_ , they were never going to be able to make this work. "Thank you for telling me," she said, offering a smile.

"Whatever you choose, make sure you do it for the right reasons."

* * *

Lying with her head resting on his chest, she skimmed through her book, never actually reading a single word. Henry was deep in his own book, his hand moving in her curls while his eyes scanned the words.

"Can I ask you something?" Elizabeth finally spoke.

"Sure," he replied, but his attention was still on the book.

"Do you think we get one true love in life? I mean, are we each other's one true love?"

Closing the book and setting it aside, Henry looked at her, a questioning look on his face. "I know that the minute I found you, I didn't feel the need to keep looking."

Sitting, she smiled at him. "How did you know?"

"I could feel it in every fiber of my body. I still do. It's like I know you're here even before I see you. It's this feeling of _home_ that envelops me when you're nearby, and to me it was enough to know I don't need to go looking elsewhere." Staring into her eyes, he smiled at her, intertwining his fingers with hers.

She leaned forward, and her lips barely touched his but she could already feel her heart skipping a beat. It was always like that with him. When they kissed, but also when he merely rested his hand on her. Just being with him, it was the best thing in the world. He pulled her to him, his hand tangling in her curls as he pressed their lips together.

"You're having second thoughts, babe?" he asked, still holding her face close to his.

"Not in a million years." She joined their lips again, moving closer to let her body lean against his.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and her head rested on his. "I don't know if there's a thing called a soulmate. I don't know if we are created to find that one person to match us so completely. I do know what I have, and what I have is no less than perfect. Call it soulmate, call it fate, it doesn't matter. I wouldn't have it any other way," he muttered before pressing a lingering kiss to her hair.

Wrapping her arm around his torso, she closed her eyes and allowed his warmth to surround her. "Me neither."


End file.
